What an absolute treat it was this week to work with these incredible mine planning engineers from KAZ Minerals in the nation's biggest city, Almaty. Muratkhan, Khairulla, and Nurlan completed the 5-day course in understanding the basic fundamentals of Surpac and OPMS. Also, a special word of thanks to our translator, Daria, for doing a smashing job in translating the sometimes-challenging technical aspects of the training. I wish these gents all the best in their future careers, and I'm already looking forward to work with the second group next week!!

Take control of your career and get empowered by these mine planning courses. Companies want their employees to do the job using software, and this is exactly the exposure you get when you create a mine design and schedule during these courses. For your convenience, there is an online booking facility to secure your spot and avoid disappointment: "https://www.schoolofrockmining.com/book-online" Alternatively send me a mail at: info@schoolofrockmining.com and I’ll gladly assist!

Flying to this great city of Kazakhstan tomorrow and really looking forward to it! Will be conducting 2 training sessions for a client seeking mine scheduling training and coaching. If you need to reach me, you know where I am!

The McArthur River mine is one of the world's largest zinc, lead and silver mines, situated about 70 kilometres southwest of Borroloola, near the Gulf of Carpentaria in the northeastern Northern Territory, Australia. It is operated by McArthur River Mining (MRM), a subsidiary of the Swiss mining company Glencore. Although discovered in the 1950s, when it was originally called the HYC or "Here's Your Chance" deposit, it only opened as a mine in 1995. Initially an underground mining operation, the mine has been converted to open-cut - "Mining.com", Wikipedia. To view the mine in Google Earth, kindly click on the link below: "https://earth.app.goo.gl/zYX8d2"

Fluorite is an important industrial mineral composed of calcium and fluorine (CaF2). It is used in a wide variety of chemical, metallurgical, and ceramic processes. Specimens with exceptional diaphaneity and colour are cut into gems or used to make ornamental objects. Fluorite is deposited in veins by hydrothermal processes. In these rocks it often occurs as a gangue mineral associated with metallic ores. Fluorite is also found in the fractures and cavities of some limestones and dolomites. It is a very common rock-forming mineral found in many parts of the world. In the mining industry, fluorite is often called "fluorspar." - "Geology.com"

Are you a mining contractor in the process of negotiating your new contract with the mine, or renewing your contract? Are you 100% confident that your Excel calculations are correct in determining fleet numbers for the contract? What if the distances are beyond what was assumed, will you have enough equipment to sustain the client’s demand? Are your roads accurately set-up in terms of stop signs, single carriage areas, steep gradients, single-bay dumps? What if your equipment availabilities do not materialise as hoped? Do your Excel spreadsheets incorporate these variables? With the HAULSIM simulations you can set up your site accurately to generate realistic results in terms of fleet number

The Liebherr R 996 B is ranked at number six in the world. The excavator’s operating weight with shovel attachment is 676t and 672t with the backhoe attachment. The vehicle has a cab height of 9.26m and an undercarriage of 10m in length and 7.9m in width. The shovel and backhoe capacity of the Liebherr R 996 B excavator is 36m³. The digging and the breakout forces during backhoe operation are 1,500kN and 1,670kN respectively. The maximum crowding force and the breakout force of its shovel are 2,430kN and 1,905kN respectively. The Liebherr R 996 B is powered by two 16-cylinder Cummins K 1800 E diesel engines producing 3,000hp at 1,800rpm - Mining Technology.

When up-blocking a resource model to a mining model it's fairly simple to weight average the qualities and RD's, but what happens to the rock types and confidence indexes (measured, indicated, inferred)... e.g. when one block is banded ironstone, and the other block is shale, what do you call the weighted average of this new block? Same goes for when you have a measured block and add it to an indicated block, you can downgrade according to the SAMREC code so that both blocks are indicated, but what if you have an indicated block and an inferred block, then you can't just downgrade anymore... I normally just keep the original tonnages from the resource model in the up-blocked model, but I wou

Take control of your career and get empowered by these mine planning courses. Companies want their employees to do the job using software, and this is exactly the exposure you get when you create a mine design and schedule during these courses. For your convenience, there is an online booking facility to secure your spot and avoid disappointment: "https://www.schoolofrockmining.com/book-online" Alternatively send me a mail at: info@schoolofrockmining.com and I’ll gladly assist!

“Feldspar” is the name of a large group of rock-forming silicate minerals that make up over 50% of Earth’s crust. They are found in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks in all parts of the world. Feldspar minerals have very similar structures, chemical compositions, and physical properties. Common feldspars include orthoclase (KAlSi3O8), albite (NaAlSi3O8), and anorthite (CaAl2Si2O8) - "Geology.com"

Don't have a university degree or diploma, but want to further your career in mining and hit that next promotion...? Don't have the means to travel to a far-off location to complete a mining course...? Or maybe you're a scholar and want to study Mining one day, but you have no clue what Mining is about...? Then consider the Mining for Non-miners course. The course was developed by the friendly people at RPMGlobal, one of the global leaders in mine planning software. The guys at RPMGlobal used their incredible breadth of knowledge to develop an on-line course, that is available for 365 days once downloaded. The course covers the whole mining industry spectrum from geology, mine planning, min

Cerro Lindo is an underground copper mine with an average daily production of 20,000 tons. The mine is located in central Peru, 175 kilometers southeast of the capital city of Lima, and operated by Nexa Resources. Cerro Lindo is renowned for its eagerness to implement new innovations into its processes. For example, it was the first mine in Peru to use Osmosis treated sea water instead of fresh water in their process - "Mining.com, Metso" To view the mine in Google Earth, kindly click on the link below: "https://earth.app.goo.gl/yTPkNq"

For those of you who weren't able to install Deon's blasting programme on your computer, have a look at his YouTube video. It illustrates what you can expect from the programme, which is a portion of the information from the blasting ticket curriculum, on your very own computer... To install the programme, kindly click on the link below... "https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xD-rPlftR-fHcGAYT2wegI5LVtdCSA_3" Alternatively send Deon a mail: deondupreez079@gmail.com He's a super friendly chap and makes the best coffee in the west!!

When I started in mine planning back in the day, everybody was talking about this Revenue Factor 1 thing. At some point I couldn't contain myself anymore, and I asked my manager what does it mean, and he explained: When doing a Whittle Open Pit Optimisation, the software generates an array of Nested Shells, or incremental shells, say in 0.25 intervals. Revenue factor is defined as: (incremental cost)/(incremental revenue). At a RF =1 pit, the incremental cost = incremental revenue, meaning for that increment there is zero profits. So even though the total pit will have PROFIT, as can be seen in the graph below, the next incremental shell will start destroying value because the costs start in

Battling with the software to set up a mining schedule? We all know the feeling... when you're losing precious time because of fighting the software instead of running iterations and scenarios... You will never have confidence in your schedule if you do not have 2 or 3 scenarios to test the flex of your system. Your superiors want a number of options, not just one answer. RPMGlobal's XPAC SOLUTIONS products allows you to do just that - run scenarios instead of suffering in silence. With almost a decade of open pit scheduling experience allow me to help you create options for your company, so you can make informed decisions, and understand the risks with confidence!

With an operating weight of up to 537t, the Hitachi EX5600-6 is the seventh biggest hydraulic mining excavator in the world. It was launched in 2012 and succeeded the EX5500-6 model. The operating weight of the EX5600-6 with shovel attachment is 533t. The overall cab height of the excavator is 8.6m and the undercarriage length and width are 9.35m and 7.4m respectively. The loading shovel bucket capacity of the excavator is up to 29m³ and the backhoe bucket capacity is up to 34m³. The crowding and breakout forces of the shovel are 1,520kN and 1,590kN respectively. The crowd force and digging force during backhoe operation are 1,300kN and 1,480kN respectively. The Hitachi EX5600-6 comes with t

Take control of your career and get empowered by these mine planning courses. Companies want their employees to do the job using software, and this is exactly the exposure you get when you create a mine design and schedule during these courses. For your convenience, there is an online booking facility to secure your spot and avoid disappointment: "https://www.schoolofrockmining.com/book-online" Alternatively send me a mail at: info@schoolofrockmining.com and I’ll gladly assist!

When I do work for clients, I like to give them options, not just one answer. It's only with options that you fully understand the flex of the system. Same goes for Mine Design. Since 2012, I've been doing all my mine design work using Trimble's TOP-D package. The package allows me to do a best fit to a Whittle shell, honour geotechnical slope angles from a csv file, as well as moving ramps around on the fly. I can even design waste dumps as well. To be honest, I'd be lost without it. Have a look at the clip below, just to see how rapidly it works. Enjoy!!

How sure are you that your mine designs have the minimum number of switchbacks? Have you tested the impact of having one switchback less, how that reduces your strip ratio and down-the-line costs, not to mention the health & safety of your employees ...? What about your benches & stacks, do they honour the geotechnical slope angles to prevent slope failure...? Your ramp systems on your interim high-walls - do they tie up with your final design and serve as dual access for that rainy day when you need it most...? Difficult questions I know, but prevention is better than cure as they say. Using state-of-the-art mine design software and almost a decade of design experience, I can help you sleep

Euclase is a rare beryllium aluminum hydroxide silicate mineral that crystallizes in the monoclinic system. It has a chemical composition of BeAlSiO4(OH). Euclase crystals are usually found in granitic pegmatites and low-temperature hydrothermal deposits. Massive to fibrous euclase is usually found in schists and phyllites. It is safe to say that most geologists have never knowingly encountered euclase in the field. It is a rare mineral, they are not expecting to see it, it is usually present in small quantities, and because most euclase is colorless to white it is easily overlooked - "Geology.com"